FINALLY getting round to typing up and sharing pictures of this explore. This was my first attempt and I would love to go back again and see more! There’s already a fair bit written up on here surrounding the history of the mill, but just to recap: they produced cigarette papers and the closure of it was sudden from what can be gathered. All of the pictures shared are unedited, taken by myself on my iphone, to be honest I failed miserably at photographing the entire experience.
We firstly went for an evening scope of the exterior, it’s absolutely huge, there are so many different sections and you could spend hours basking in the spookiness. We didn’t locate any entry points, although it did give us an idea of the size and potential areas we could try. There was a massive section with shipping containers too that would make the best rave location! Don't let the signs fool you either - there's definitely no police dogs training on site!
We went back the following weekend in the daytime for a proper explore and discovered that we weren’t alone – there were workmen on site. After getting past an open door with tools outside of it, we headed round to the opposite side of the mill – the chlorine tanks section.
We managed to find a perfectly human sized entry point and got in. Evidence in here certainly suggested that the closure of the mill had been sudden and unexpected – lockers with pictures of page three girls hung up in them, food boxes, newspapers, shoes and clothes were all here.
Although there are doors in here that seemingly lead to other sections, they were all locked shut, so we decided to keep scouting around to find entry to other sections. Although it wasn’t a wet day, the long grass surrounding the place was wet, which ended up being our downfall as secret trespassers. We were outside what I presumed may have been a lorry loading exit, it was on the left hand side of the site, closest to Dovestones, and as you walked up the hill toward the back, the mill was on your right hand side and there was a bushy slope on the left hand side. Above it looked as though there had once been offices or a main entry point, we were hoping we could access this via the slope with bushes on. We walked up the slope and checked out some stairs and an outhouse and then heard a shout of “OI THERE’S FOOTPRINTS HERE”. We saw two men with tools walking up where we had just walked, one of them pointing out the fact that the wet footprints were from neither of their shoes. A very tense time followed….
Just like the course of true love, our explore was not easy. The men made their way up to the outhouse we were near and began doing whatever work they were doing to patch it up / make it safe. To be honest, my memories of this are now quite hazy given the fact it is November, but by this point, we were lay on the floor near this outhouse, attempting to blend in with the bushes. My pink bag, not exactly conducive to staying camouflaged, was jammed under my back leaving me in an awkward position, the kind where you feel SO uncomfortable and try your hardest not to think about it because you know you just need to stay still. What seemed like forever passed by, stuck with no way of a secret or hidden escape, we decided that rather than hang around and risk discovery when we weren’t prepared that we would just make a run for it. What followed was the worst run of my entire life, chased by two men repeatedly shouting “OI STOP”. It seemed to take forever to run down this muddy bushy slope, sprint straight past the front of the main building where the workmen had been earlier, sprint all the way to the access bridge still being chased, sprint across the bridge whilst trying to hold off having heart failure from exertion, get out of sight and collapse in a heap. We weren’t followed over the bridge thankfully, so we could chill out and get away.
So hereth endeth the explore. Definitely learned some lessons for the next time, mainly to not take a pink bag that screams 'look at me sticking out in this bleak landscape'. I'd be grateful for any hints, tips, tricks, feedback. Thank you for reading my first report!
We firstly went for an evening scope of the exterior, it’s absolutely huge, there are so many different sections and you could spend hours basking in the spookiness. We didn’t locate any entry points, although it did give us an idea of the size and potential areas we could try. There was a massive section with shipping containers too that would make the best rave location! Don't let the signs fool you either - there's definitely no police dogs training on site!
We went back the following weekend in the daytime for a proper explore and discovered that we weren’t alone – there were workmen on site. After getting past an open door with tools outside of it, we headed round to the opposite side of the mill – the chlorine tanks section.
We managed to find a perfectly human sized entry point and got in. Evidence in here certainly suggested that the closure of the mill had been sudden and unexpected – lockers with pictures of page three girls hung up in them, food boxes, newspapers, shoes and clothes were all here.
Although there are doors in here that seemingly lead to other sections, they were all locked shut, so we decided to keep scouting around to find entry to other sections. Although it wasn’t a wet day, the long grass surrounding the place was wet, which ended up being our downfall as secret trespassers. We were outside what I presumed may have been a lorry loading exit, it was on the left hand side of the site, closest to Dovestones, and as you walked up the hill toward the back, the mill was on your right hand side and there was a bushy slope on the left hand side. Above it looked as though there had once been offices or a main entry point, we were hoping we could access this via the slope with bushes on. We walked up the slope and checked out some stairs and an outhouse and then heard a shout of “OI THERE’S FOOTPRINTS HERE”. We saw two men with tools walking up where we had just walked, one of them pointing out the fact that the wet footprints were from neither of their shoes. A very tense time followed….
Just like the course of true love, our explore was not easy. The men made their way up to the outhouse we were near and began doing whatever work they were doing to patch it up / make it safe. To be honest, my memories of this are now quite hazy given the fact it is November, but by this point, we were lay on the floor near this outhouse, attempting to blend in with the bushes. My pink bag, not exactly conducive to staying camouflaged, was jammed under my back leaving me in an awkward position, the kind where you feel SO uncomfortable and try your hardest not to think about it because you know you just need to stay still. What seemed like forever passed by, stuck with no way of a secret or hidden escape, we decided that rather than hang around and risk discovery when we weren’t prepared that we would just make a run for it. What followed was the worst run of my entire life, chased by two men repeatedly shouting “OI STOP”. It seemed to take forever to run down this muddy bushy slope, sprint straight past the front of the main building where the workmen had been earlier, sprint all the way to the access bridge still being chased, sprint across the bridge whilst trying to hold off having heart failure from exertion, get out of sight and collapse in a heap. We weren’t followed over the bridge thankfully, so we could chill out and get away.
So hereth endeth the explore. Definitely learned some lessons for the next time, mainly to not take a pink bag that screams 'look at me sticking out in this bleak landscape'. I'd be grateful for any hints, tips, tricks, feedback. Thank you for reading my first report!
